Greek Tragedy and Spanish Golden Age Theatre: Reading the tragic genre Part four

Appendix

On the translation of “El medico de su honra” by Gwynne Edwards

“Similarly, Brenan’s suggestion that Calderon approved of Gutierre’s murder of Mencia can be shown to be erroneous, for what he shows us is the process whereby a man who is basically good and loving is destroyed by an inflexible ideology” Edwards, Introduction, xxi.

Edwards is one of the scholars that consider a mistake the thesis that I held in this paper: that Calderon supports the crime. The question is that, with the purpose of defending Calderon from this mistake, the critics are manipulating the play, and Edwards translation is the perfect sample.

On the following lines I quote the Spanish text, the Edwards translation and a completely literal translation that follows the Spanish words. As anyone can see, the textual evidences that can be argued against Edwards view of the play, are completely vanished in his translation: lines that disappear, words that change substantially, the sense of the play becoming another… Edwards, by the way an excellent translator, seems to do a reinterpretation about some aspects of the play that can sustain other thesis (that no supports his own reading). 

In his version, his English version, Gutierre’s jealousy is not vile, despicable or wrong, no; he is only a man that gets worried about his honour.

In his version, Mencia’s blood is guilty, and Leonor accepts Gutierre in the condition of that he killed a guilty woman, and, of course, she doesn’t say that the crime doesn’t frighten or amazed her… These few changes modify completely the sense of the play: not even Calderon dares to say that Mencia’s blood is guilty; his vision of Gutierre is not so naïve as the one of his defenders.

Spanish text	Edwards translation	Literal translation
TEXT 1 Gutierre, mal informado / por aparentes recelos, / llegó a tener viles celos / de su honor; TEXT 2 Rey- Dásela, pues, a Leonor, / que yo sé que su alabanza / la merece. Don Gutierre- Sí la doy. / Mas mira, que va bañada / en sangre, Leonor. Doña Leonor- No importa; / que no me admira ni espanta. / Don Gutierre- Mira que médico he sido / de mi honra: no está olvidada / la ciencia. Doña Leonor- Cura con ella / mi vida, en estando mala. / Don Gutierre- Pues con esa condición/ te la doy [...]. (vv. 2940-2951).	TEXT 1 My master is, as you well know, Aman suspicious of his honour, and of hiswife, Mencia, in particular. TEXT 2 King: Then give your hand to Leonor. Her reputation merits it. Gutierre: So be it, with the reservation that It has been cleansed with guilty blood. Leonor: On that condition I accept it. Gutierre: Do not forget. I have already been The surgeon of my honour. It is A skill, I promise you, that lasts forever. Leonor: If I am ever sick, Gutierre, do Not hesitate to cure me. Gutierre: Then here’s my hand, my dear”.	TEXT 1 Gutierre, that handles wrong information, became despicably jealousy by his own mistrust and suspicious mind about his honour TEXT 2 2940 King: Give it, then to Eleanor, I know that she is worth it. GUTIERRE: Yes I give it. But look, which is bathed in blood, Leonor. ELEANOR: It doesn't matter; 2945 not admire me or scares. GUTIERRE: Look that I have been the doctor of my honour.It is not aforgotten Science. LEONOR: Cure with it my life in being bad. 2950  GUTIERRE: On  that condition I give it to you.

Notes

1 Many authors exercise a political definition of the tragic genre. Only to mention, by way of example, the following: Jaeger (1933 / 1954: 248), Murray (1940 / 1954: 29), Luis Gil (1988), Carlos García Gual (1988: 182-183), Adrados (1992: 4, 5), Trapp (1996: 82), Pelling (1997: 224), Parker (1997: 146), Vidal-Naquet (2001 / 2004). I refer, for a detailed justificaci6n, to the first chapter of Varela Álvarez (2008).

2 While Lope himself considers as a tragicomedy his play “the Knight of Olmedo”, “The punishment without revenge” was conceived, I insist, by the author as a tragedy. The difference would hinge on the non-fictional origin of the story, although the author does not hesitate to modify following the first Aristotelian principle which differences the history from the tragedy according to this judgement: the History tells the particular facts while the Tragedy tells the facts as should have been. Lope is moving between the new and old art, between the comedy and the tragedy and what make the difference and serves for distinguishing between tragedy and tragicomedy is not the level of the characters, or the outcome of the play, but the historicity of the argument. It's a historic fact, taken from written sources; this is something that Lope makes clear. On the contrary, this kind of historicity is not found in plays as “The Celestina”, for example». (Ynduráin, 1987: 148). (Translation by Violeta Varela Alvarez).

3 The dedication and the preface do not appear in Kossoff edition (1985).

4. For a discussion about the sources of “the punishment without revenge” I refer to Kossoff (1985: 20 and ff.).

5 “If the protagonist, before facing his own death, has to humbly regret about all the mistakes in his life, he can be a Saint, but not a tragic hero ". (MacCurdy, 1989: I, 180).

6 It has been pointed out how such tragedies, which would be after the undermining of revenge, are connected with the reign of Felipe IV and his interest for loving affairs, as well as the adjustment to the courtly taste. (Ynduráin, 1987: 150).

7 I entirely agree with MacCurdy (1989: I, 178) and the thesis that emphasizes the incompatibility between Catholic values and the tragic perspective: « Catholicism, according to several critics, is mainly the value that avoids the tragedy, because the true tragic experience is not going with the essential optimism of the Christian faith».

8 I disagree, consequently, with Ynduráin (1987: 151): [...] It seems that there is a progression from revenge to punishment, through discretions, secrets and prudence: the one replaces the other, with all that it implies. Lope, is even pleased to lead the reader or listener into a revenge fact to, at the last moment, with one master swerve, frustrate that expectation and replacing it with an act of punishment, new and different, an unexpected outcome in any case.

9. Actually, Lope would have been pointed out, on more than one occasion, as the responsible for the extinction of the tragic genre in Spain. «On the contrary, Agustín Montiano, in his “discourse on the Spanish tragedy”, does not hesitate to claim for the Spanish a natural inclination to the tragedy: "the cause of this tragic, serious and great inclination, would be discovered in the Spanish mentality, that naturally prefers the tragic circumspection;»» The pity that excites; the authenticity that exercises; the benefit that produces and the rationality that keeps; opposite to unsuitable triviality, the insensitivity of the soul, the impossible facts, the useless activities, the disruption of the speech: and this, not only when it is possible to discern what’s best, but even when the tendency to goodness is hidden». Montiano, inveterate classicist by the way, considers Lope de Vega the responsible for the denaturising of the Spanish propensity to tragedy» (MacCurdy, 1989: I, 176). Same opinion would be shared by Martínez de la Rosa (apud MacCurdy, 1989: I, 177).

10. I do not believe that the outcome of the play can be considered ironic (O'Connor, 1982: 788-789). The end of the play is a happy ending and is even facetious. The attitude of Leonor, the King and Gutierre communicate an absolute satisfaction about the new marriage, and the young woman, that feels confidence in her own virtue, doesn’t seem to fear anything about her future marriage with a man who is able of such a brutal act.

11 Life, in the tragic experience, is an insignificant value, but a value after all. If life is not absolutely essential, its sacrifice would be meaningless. 

12 we disagree, consequently, with O'Connor’s opinion regarding to the treatment of the honour in the play: «In some way, he demonstrates [Calderon] how the honour is divorced of the virtue, its traditional source, as he describes what kind of resorts the man will use to protect its place in the social hierarchy. [...] In “The doctor of his honour” Calderon is interested more in the human problems that underline the obvious troubles caused by an unreasonable consideration of the honour» (1982: 785).

13 O'Connor says (1982: 784): “The Prince Don Enrique behaves boldly, without worrying about the problems that he provokes to Mencfa. He abuses of his position and of his royal powers, he refuses as well to consider the situation that she describes... Mencia shall be the innocent victim of this egomaniac prince, although she had already been before when she was forced by her father to marry don Gutierre». It is true, but this fact does not mean the existence in the play of any sort of social critic. Enrique's attitude serves Calderon for, through the figure of the King, the demonstration and enunciation of a doctrine in which the honour is the only fundamental only value.

14 «In this paper I propose to broaden the traditional conception of the drama by the inclusion, basically, of other problems: those that concern the relations between men and women» (O'Connor, 1982:783).

15 We must remember that Leonor refuses to marry don Arias because she believes that this union could serve as a confirmation to old suspicions (vv. 1755-1784).

16. Again, we disagree deeply with the interpretation of O'Connor (1982: 786-787): "At the end of the work, the marriage between Leonor and don Gutierre emphasizes the victimisation of women by men." We have just seen the sacrifice of Mencia due to the honour- and with his hands already bathed in her blood, the high priest of honour extends the link of marriage to Leonor, previous victim and, in this terrible scene, likely candidate for a new victimisation. [...] With the murder of the innocent Mencia and the victimisation of the naive Leonor, Calderon reveals the acceptable traditions of his society; a society established on a false and destructive pattern, the need of the subordination of women to the male power and privilege. To carry out ineluctably with this debt of honour, serves Calderon to reveal tacitly those horrible assumptions of a society dominated and driven by men».

I do not see anything naive in the behaviour and the character of Eleanor: is vindictive (she wants that the evil caused by Gutierre reverts in himself VV. 1007-1020); It is clever (knows that a marriage with don Arias will not return her previous social position); It is cruel (she tells to Gutierre, in the face of Mencia’s corpse, that if she acts badly, Gutierre can apply the same medicine to her): she takes an approving look on the murder of Mencia (Mencia introduced doubts in the honour of her husband and she deserved the punishment, but Leonor, on the contrary, considers herself as a virtuous woman whose dishonour was due to a misunderstanding and for this reason she accepts Gutierre with the confidence possessed by those that believe themselves better); and, finally, she does not feel any pity or sorry for Mencia (she couldn’t care lees and she says it clearly: the crime does not frighten or amazes her, as well as she is not worried about the bloody hands of her future husband). Calderon performances for sure a horrible act, but it doesn’t mean that he makes a critical approach. Finally, it is true, as O'Connor says (1982: 787), that Leonor represents the exposed situation of a woman without males in the family that can protect her, but it is not true that Calder6n intends to denounce the indefensi6n of Leonor: what Calderon shows us is that even the more humble and unprotected vassals can expect relief and protection of their King.

Bibliography

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Greek Tragedy and Spanish Golden Age Theatre: Reading the tragic genre Part three

Calderon

Calderon’s play tells us the story of an atrocious crime: the murder of a innocent woman due to the honour of her husband. The man instigates the murder of his wife on the belief, falsely, that she has committed adultery with the prince don Enrique. Such a crime appears, as we will see, completely justified in the play and in the outcome the author will guarantee the killer a happy ending and a new marriage with Leonor (v. 2940. and next).

Is not new in the wide field of the tragic events that a horrible crime being justified. In the Greek tragedy, we attend to multiple and terrible deaths and crimes, but the insertion of these actions in the conflict between the family range and the political ambit confers to this actions a tragic dignity, what it means that the tragedy lies in the fact of killing someone beloved due to political or religious reasons. The tragedy always has shown us the pain and suffer of whom that are meant to loose. These notes are fundamental, because, as we will see soon, the crime that Calderon places for us in the stage is absolutely irreconcilable with the tragic experience, since in the last scenes the death of the woman does not mean anything to anyone 10. Her savage murder does not matter or concern anybody, with the only exception, we will see further, of Coquin, the clown and the comic relief in the play.

Even with her remains being still on the stage, Calderon decides to resolve comically the play. There is no possible a bigger disdain for a human life, contempt that barely and hardly fits in the tragic perspective 11. The death of the wife is divested of any significance in Calderon’s play. With the corpse bloodily present, a new wedding will be set up for the murderer, weddings sponsored and blessed by the king who, even being aware of all the facts, does not consider that the death of the woman deserves any kind of punishment. The outcome of the play gives us a happy ending and the reasons of the murderer prevail through the words of the king. The play involves from beginning to end the simplistic statement of the codes of honour 12. The honour Code is above all: either above state distinctions (Enrique is not safe in spite of his noble condition), or even above evidences and realities (Enrique and Mencia never consummate their relationship). The laws of honour do not meet estates or realities and the deaths that come of its application are not questioned, nor censored, and nor judged.

Moreover, the honour is defined as a category that is always moving in the level of the appearances: it doesn't matter so much that the honour being intact: the essential issue is that the honour must seem intact. If the appearance of honour vanishes, then, equally, this appearance must be repaired with a public and ostentatious act, as finally happens in Calderon’s play. It is true that Gutierre’s honour didn’t take any offence at the actions of Mencia and Enrique, but it is no less true that their acts caused a dishonourable appearance that Gutierre shall repair with the public execution of his innocent wife. The appearance that holds the honour of Gutierre is restored by a crime that is displayed in front of the King and of other spectators.

Calderon, in a different way than other Spanish authors, shows off such a socio-political idealism in his play that even goes against the political reality that effectively shapes The Spain of the seventieth century. Other authors, like Rojas Zorrilla, in example, dramatised analogous situation but in this case the rules of honour are highly liable to its dissolution in the more complex structure of estates, stratum and classes that are implied by a Nation, which it means that if the King is the offender there is no possible reparations. In Calderon’s play, the King embodies the reason. His judgment about the crime will prevail at the end of the drama: he sanctions, approves and rewards, with a new marriage, the right and the moral prerogative of Gutierre to kill his innocent wife making use of the codes o honour, according to which the apparent offences demand the same response as well as the real ones.

Calderon had in his hands a perfect tragic material: the brutal murder of an innocent woman due to the only suspicions of her husband, the terrible duty that the honour Code, regulated by appearances, imposes to anyone, a Code that rules the life and that makes a beloved husband become a cruel executioner. Lope, as we have just seen, was so critic with the honour and its reasons and rules. But Calderon make the choice of reducing this tragic event to a mere anecdote without meaning and importance, what’s more, the death of Mencia is the only way to solve the problems of honour that another woman, Leonor, is suffering.

We will see now the basic and essential significance of these points that I come repeating and insisting on. It could be argued that in Claderon’s play we effectively have two dialectical approaches: the genre and the socio-political ones (O'Connor, 1982).

In this paper I'm going to defend that there is no way of talking about any presence of such dialectical conflicts in this play. I will argue this thesis down to the last detail.

1- Regarding the socio-political dialectic 13, I have already argued that the play has as one of its main purposes the denial of this sort of conflicts regarding to the Idea of honour in the Spanish golden age. The important matter is not the estate to where each one belongs, but the honour that each one owns. In the play, Gutierre is above the prince Enrique because Gutierre has fulfilled the requirements of honour, ordering the killing of his wife, while Enrique has desecrated those same rules, does not matter that he was unsuccessfully, courting and wooing a married woman. This is not, therefore, a dialectical approach, but a not critic and idealistic assertion of the honour and its procedures. Here are the words of the King claiming the rules of honour above any distinction of any other kind:

Act three, 75: “King: Do you not realize

That, more than once, avenging swords

Have sought to right with royal blood

Unjust offences done to them?

Enrique: I do, your majesty, But who

Can you be saying this about?

King: You, Enrique! How could you so forget

That honour is a sacred thing,

The province of the soul, where I,

The King, have no authority?

I’ll say no more.

Enrique: It isn’t true.

King: You must take greater care where love’s

Concerned and learn to act more prudently

Where female beauty, even though

It draws you, is impossible.

We deal here with the soul of someone whose

Allegiance is forever promised to

Authority far greater than my own;

Who, if he asks me to be fair

And just to him, as I must be,

Would make it difficult for me

To spare the blood of my own family”.

Rey- Vos, Enrique no sabéis / que más de un acero tiñe / el agravio en sangre real. / Don Enrique- Pues, ¿por quién, señor, lo dice / Vuestra Majestad? Rey- Por vos / lo digo, por vos, Enrique; / el honor es reservado / lugar, donde el alma asiste; / yo no soy Rey de las almas: / harto en esto solo os dije. / Don Enrique- No os entiendo Rey- Si a la enmienda / vuestro amor no se apercibe, / dejando vanos intentos / de bellezas imposibles, / donde el alma de un vasallo / con ley soberana vive, / podrá ser de mi justicia / aun mi sangre no se libre. (vv. 2189 y ss.).

2-The sexual dialectics.14  I can’t find in his play any sort of critic about the subjugation of women, but all the contrary. The play defines the wife role as a kind of slavery (in the verses 1240-1241, words that are not counteracted by any other assertion in the play), but, even, moreover, the damage of one woman, Mencia, becomes the solution for another, Leonor. Mencia’s death means the salvation of Leonor, that finally reaches a marriage and a happy ending with the only man that can give this to her, the man that had already promised to her before15 . Let’s see how both of them, Leonor and Gutierre, received the news regarding their future wedding:

Act three, 97-100 Mencia’s body is revealed, a bloodless corpse lyingon a bed.“King: The tale is most remarkable!

Aside.

But prudence is required here.

His vengeance is quite admirable.

Aloud.

Conceal this vision; hide at once

This pitiful admission of

The way misfortune rues our lives,

And flls our hes with fear for

Those things that lie in store for us.

Gutierre, you have our pity.

Your loss is great, and our duty is

To try to compensate that loss

As best we can. And so it seems

The best solution is to marry Leonor.

Do not forget, she is a creditor

To whom you owe a debt of honour.

And that will satisfy me too,

And help me keep a promise I

Once made to her.

Gutierre: Your majesty,

It is not time to think of this.

The ashes of my tragedy

Are not yet cold. I beg you, do

Not make me keep this bargain. Give

Me time, the opportunity

To weep and find some peace again.

King: I have decided. See it’s done.

Gutierre: Your majesty. Mencia’s death

Has freed me from the storm that raged

About my head. Must I set sail

Upon that sea again now she is dead?

King: It is your King’s command.

Gutierre: My lord,

I beg of you. Do not make this demand.

King: You think I am unreasonable?

Gutierre: What if again I were to find

Myself in such a situation?

What if again your brother’s presence in

JMy house inflamed suspicions…?

[…]

Gutierre: A man must sometimes cleanse his hands with blood

In order to protect his honour.

King: Then give your hand to Leonor.

Her reputation merits it.

Gutierre: So be it, with the reservation that

It has been cleansed with guilty blood.

Leonor: On that condition I accept it.

Gutierre: Do not forget. I have already been

The surgeon of my honour. It is

A skill, I promise you, that lasts forever.

Leonor: If I am ever sick, Gutierre, do

Not hesitate to cure me.

Gutierre: Then here’s my hand, my dear”.

Rey- Dásela, pues, a Leonor, / que yo sé que su alabanza / la merece. Don Gutierre- Sí la doy. / Mas mira, que va bañada / en sangre, Leonor. Doña Leonor- No importa; / que no me admira ni espanta. / Don Gutierre- Mira que médico he sido / de mi honra: no está olvidada / la ciencia. Doña Leonor- Cura con ella / mi vida, en estando mala. / Don Gutierre- Pues con esa condición

/ te la doy [...]. (vv. 2940-2951).

Where is, in these words (for the problems with the English translation see the appendix), the gender solidarity that some critics notes and realizes in the play? Leonor says clearly: the crime does not amazes or scares her 16, as well as to all the characters of the play but the clown, Coquin, the only one that feels horror of Mencia’s death describing the jealous and possessive conduct of Gutierre as vil and despicable.

This character, the clown, is the only one that seems to have some empathy for the hideous and cruelty of the crime, a character whose ideas and beliefs are discredited in the play by its own kind of "clown" and "coward" (v. 1253 Et seq. Act two 43 and 44, note the contrast that Calderon establishes between Gutierre and Coquin in this specific dialogue: Don Gutierre, future killer of his wife through a forced Ludovico, embodies the honesty of those who can’t flee from justice, Coquin does not). How a coward and a clown is supposed to understand the issues of honor? No way. Let's take a look at the lines of Coquin, verses 2728 et seq.

Act three, 93. “Coquin: I swear,

Your majesty, that this time it

Is most unfunny. I know you think

That I’m a clown, but want to tell

You that, deep own, there’s really quite

A serious side o me, and what

I have to tell you now is, not

To put too fine a point on it,

Well… pretty bloody. No, I haven’t come

To make you laugh; more to see if what

I’ve got to say will break your heart.

My master is, as you well know,

A man suspicious of his honour, and of

His wife, Mencia, in particular.

Well just today, by some unlucky chance,

He came across her just as she

Had started putting pen to paper, which,

It seems, consisted of a letter to

Your brother, Prince Enrique. She begged

Him not to leave the city, knowing well

That people, when they heard the news,

Would straight away believe that she’s

The one who ought to be accused

Of it. Approaching her, Gutierre saw

How she was overcome by fear, took

The letter, thought suspicion justified,

Had all the servants leave, the doors

All locked, and him the only one

Still left inside with her. I feel

Such pity for the poor girl.

She seems so cruelly abused

By harsh, unfeeling fate, I had

To come and tell your majesty,

So you could maybe bring your strong

And mighty arm to bear on it”.

Esta es una honrada acci6n I de hombre bien nacido, en fin; I que aunque

hombre me consideras / de burlas, con loco humor, / llegando a veras, señor,

/ soy hombre de muchas veras. / Oye lo que he de decir, / pues de veras vengo a hablar, / que quiero hacerte llorar, / ya que no puedo reír. / Gutierre, mal informado / por aparentes recelos, / llegó a tener viles celos / de su honor; y hoy, obligado / a tal sospecha, que halló / escribiendo (¡error cruel!) / para el Infante un papel / a su esposa, que intentó / con él que no se ausentase,

/ porque ella causa no fuese / de que en Sevilla se viese / la novedad que causase / pensar que ella le ausentaba... / con esta inocencia pues / (que a mí me consta), con pies / cobardes, adonde estara / llegó, y el papel tomó, / y, sus celos declarados, / despidiendo a los criados, / todas las puertas cerró, / solo se quedó con ella. / Yo, enternecido de ver / una infelice mujer, / perseguida de su estrella, / vengo, señor, a avisarte / que tu brazo altivo y fuerte / hoy la libre de la muerte.

It could be argued that the clown is the one that bears the hard work of telling the truth. It could be argued that Calderon beliefs agrees Coquin’s ones, but the truth is that we will never know what Calderon thought about, the only thing that can be proven is that the end of the play points to the fact that the crime is viewed as something excusable and pardonable, and what we can demonstrate it is also that the acclaiming of the codes of honour, as Calderon does, supposes to support a system in which the mere appearance of crime implies guilt and revenge, what is absolutely consistent with the outcome of the facts and with the drawing of offences and reparations that the author puts in the scene.

The development of the play discredits the clown, not Gutierre. The King supports Gutierre, and, consequently, turns a blind eye to a vile and unfair murder. May be objected too, it is true, that the King responses to Coquin’s calling, and he doesn’t save the life of Mencia because he can't (he arrives late). It’s also true that he feels a faithful horror when he discovers the bleeding body of the woman, and expresses his reproach to Gutierre for his rush, but all these gestures and signs, quite insignificant, lose all their meaning when the King decides, I must insist, not to punish Gutierre by the horrible crime (see verses 2923-2939, Act three 97: in this dialogue it’s clear that the king couldn’t care less about the murder), and to reward him with a new wife (Act three 97, vv. 2940-2942), and Gutierre does not hesitate to warn her that he would do the same again if the situation requires it.

The denial of dialectics through the category of honour help us to find out that in Calderon’s mentality, the contrary that in Lope, then rules of honour are use for legitimating criminal proceedings. The honour dissolves in this play all sort of socio-political conflict, even above estates or classes. In Calderon there is politics and he puts his play in the service of very specific political ideas: the reaffirmation of the royal power. In this sense, the classical tradition remains alive in his work.

The main problem that we find to consider this play as a tragedy comes from its treatment of violence. To finish such a brutal and terrible play according to comical codes (the announcement of a wedding) is something that any tragedy can’t stand. The tragic genre has always offered us valuable reflections on the terrible fact of violence, doesn’t matter how much unavoidable or necessary it may be. A King that, in the face the corpse of an innocent murdered woman, does not punish the guilty; a woman who isn’t frightened or amazed by the crime; a man who receives the new nuptials threatening his future wife with the image of the inert body of his first one... Unpunished injustices which no one cares or concerns about, apart from Coquin the servant…  And all of this is happening in the midst of the joy for the new wedding... The tragedy becomes extinct in Calderon as the same time as the respect due to Mencia vanishes, at once with the absence of dignity of murderers and spectators, almost accomplices. And this is not a critic taken out of the context. The Greeks knew this respect and this dignity, both were present in its literature, it is not an extrapolation of modern sensibilities, it’s simply the horror that has always gone with the violence and the injustice in every tragedy that worth it.